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"Sly and delightful . . . the book is the equivalent of a flinty, modern dame holding her own in a room full of condescending men." —The New York Times Book Review
New York City, 1953: Louise Leithauser's star is on the rise. She's filed some of the best pieces at her boyfriend Joe's brand new literary magazine, Downtown (albeit under a male pseudonym), her relationship still makes her weak at the knees, and the science fiction romance she's writing on the side, "The Lunar Housewife," is going swimmingly. But when she overhears Joe and his business partner fighting about listening devices and death threats, Louise can't help but investigate, and she quickly finds herself wading into dangerous waters.
As Louise pieces together rumors, hunches, and clues, the picture begins to come together—Downtown's strings are being pulled by someone powerful, and that someone doesn't want artists or writers criticizing Uncle Sam. Meanwhile, opportunities are falling in Louise's lap that she'd have to be crazy to refuse, including an interview with America's most famous living author, Ernest Hemingway. Can Louise stand by and let doors keep opening for her, while the establishment sells out and censors her fellow writers? As her suspicions and paranoia mount, Louise's own novel "The Lunar Housewife" changes shape, colored by her newfound knowledge. And when Louise is forced to consider her future sooner than she planned, she needs to decide whether she can trust Joe for the rest of her life.
Peppered with cameos from real life luminaries such as Truman Capote and James Baldwin, and full of period detail and nail-biting tension, Caroline Woods channels 1950s New York glamour as Louise's investigation brings her face to face with shocking secrets, brutal sexism, and life or death consequences. Deeply researched and propulsive, The Lunar Housewife is a historical thriller rich with meaning for modern readers.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
June 14, 2022 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780593589304
- File size: 293051 KB
- Duration: 10:10:31
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Starred review from April 4, 2022
This cleverly inventive yet authentic–feeling early Cold War thriller from Woods (Fräulein M.) takes on the New York publishing world from a woman’s perspective, while containing a novella-length American-Soviet space romance written by the protagonist with parallels to her own life. In 1953, Louise Leithauser has been pseudonymously writing about politics for a hot new literary magazine cofounded by her boyfriend, Joe Martin, and his charismatic partner, Harry Billings. The role brings her close to publishing celebrities who could be interested in the romance she’s working on, but also forces her into socializing with Harry and the woman he’s dating behind his wife’s back, a waitress who also knows the unglamorous secrets of Louise’s past. Meanwhile, an overheard conversation leads Louise to investigate Joe’s connections to government censorship of literary expression. Real-life writers add spice, including a playfully frank Ernest Hemingway, whom Louise befriends during an interview for which he requests a female reporter. The suspense builds as Woods shifts between the main narrative and the space romance, which provides a window into Louise’s frustrated mindset about gender dynamics, politics, and power. This is a delightfully different variety of spy story. Agent: Shannon Hassan, Marsal Lyon Literary. -
June 10, 2024
Louise Leithauser realizes that women in 1953 must fight for control of their own lives. While society expects her to get married and settle down, she is determined to be a writer, so she seizes an opportunity to write for Downtown magazine. Louise is given a plum assignment when Ernest Hemingway agrees to an interview, so long as his interviewer is a "girl reporter." Through overheard conversations, she hears rumors of the CIA's clandestine attempts to control the publishing industry. Meanwhile, she continues to write a romance novel about an American woman who volunteers for a Russian experiment on the moon. As Louise learns more about CIA activity, she incorporates her newfound knowledge into her story, but soon, this secret information puts her life in danger. Woods (Fr�ulein M.) skillfully weaves the telling of Louise's life story and her fictional one, creating interesting and believable characters on both sides of the equation. Narrators Jeanna Phillips and Cindy Kay deliver a full range of emotions that reveal the pressures, expectations, and quiet resistance experienced by women of the era. VERDICT A winner for readers of thriller fiction and those interested in a different sort of spy story.--Joanna M. Burkhardt
Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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